Daily New COVID-19 Cases Remain High

The COVID-19 trend of the past month is showing no sign of reversing.

In April, the number of daily new cases began to rise, and have since held steady at an elevated level since mid-May.

A weekly report from public health officials and epidemiologists and faculty from the Medical College of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee shows there were 1,203 cases this past week, up from 1,182 the week prior.

In an email releasing the report, Darren Rausch, director of the Greenfield Health Department, said “Overall, recent data continues to support evidence of a plateau since mid-May and fairly consistently high daily cases in the weeks to follow.”

There were 139 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 this past week, down from 144 the week prior. Hospitalizations among children also went down from 10 to 9. There was one death due to COVID-19 this past week.

Both hospitalizations and deaths are lagging indicators of disease because of how long it takes for someone who contracts the disease to become seriously ill. Data on hospitalization also tends to lag because of challenges to reporting them.

The positivity rate, which measures the percentage of tests that come back positive for COVID-19 went up to 13.9% this past week compared to 12.7% the week prior.

The most recent weekly COVID-19 reproduction number for the county, from June 15 – 21, would indicate community suppression of the disease. This number is a measure of how many people, on average, will contract COVID-19 from a single confirmed case. The county’s latest reproduction number was 0.995. Numbers below 1.0 indicate community suppression.

The vaccination rate in Milwaukee County continues its glacial upward climb. This past week, the percentage of residents five years and older that were completely vaccinated as of June 27 was 66.0%, according to a countywide vaccine report. The percentage of booster eligible residents 12 years and older was 58.8%, having not moved up in recent weeks.

Children between six months and five years old recently became eligible for vaccination. The county’s vaccination rate for its entire population is 61.4%

Read the weekly report here. Read the children’s report here. Read the vaccination report here.